The Wolf
by Randomuso
Summary: Sequel to The Cub-will work without having read the first part.
1. Potions

_Hi guys! I have returned with the sequel to The Cub! This is all really the same story, but I've skipped to third year, so I figured I should stick a break in. So, here is the briefly mentioned Alyssa and the newest addition to the group, which I'm very excited to introduce. :) Years one and two will probably be shown in flashbacks, or at least that's the plan. _

_I'll apologise in advance for my lack of updates-I'm at school now, so they will likely be few and far between. However, reviews may entice me to write faster. ;p_

_**I do not own Harry Potter-if I did, Lupin would still be alive. **_

_Love, Randomuso!_

Alyssa's gaze flew around the group as she stepped into the classroom. Her first class of the third year and it was an advanced class. Lucky her! Granted it was potions, but still. Alyssa was unnaturally skilled at potions and always had been, even in first year. Smirking, she remembered Reggie's extremely unsubtle copying of her potions essays and Leo's equally as unsubtle eye rolling. Feeling a familiar yearning rise in her chest, Alyssa began to look forward to their little study and social sessions in the spare classroom down the hall.

Alyssa had really missed the boys over the holidays. Over their first two years the group had really bonded and Alyssa couldn't wait to get back together.

A tall form invaded her vision and Alyssa looked over sideways as someone took the seat beside her.

"Hi, I'm Sly."

The boy was slightly taller than average with wiry muscles standing out beneath light olive skin. His eyes were bright, light blue and his thin lips smiled as he spoke. A white fedora with a black band around it rested on his head, with shaggy black hair peeking out from underneath. His thin wrists were adorned with bracelets and he wore rings on far more fingers than he was supposed it to.

Alyssa grinned. "'Hi, I'm Sly.'" she quoted. "I'm appreciating the rhyme."

The handsome boy laughed. "Well thanks, I made it up myself." His tie, knotted loosely at the bottom of his sternum, was striped in green and silver, marking the boy as a Slytherin. In the advanced classes, there were usually representatives from every house present, and in potions, the class seemed to be mostly Slytherin orients, probably due to the fact that the teacher was head of the house.

"I'm Alyssa Pedrin." she supplied, sticking out a hand for Sly to shake. "Do you have a last name?"

Shaking Alyssa's hand warmly, Sly grinned. "If you must know, I'm a Rydon. And I suppose you'll want to be calling me Sylvester then, won't you?"

Alyssa scrunched up her nose. "Nah, too long. Sly's just perfect."

The pair shared a smile, but before further conversation could develop, Professor Snape began his brisk swoop to the front of the class. Alyssa fell silent, knowing from experience that it was better to let the Professor speak before screwing around. Especially in an advanced class. They were only in place from third year up and they were only for the very top students, or the kids that wanted to do a lesson but already had a full schedule. As it was, there were only eight of them there. Alyssa had had some sort of conversation with everyone in the group at some stage, apart from Sly, evidently. The ever hungry, yet always slim Rebekah and the unlikely looking troublemaker Ceridwyn-more commonly referred to as Bex and Dwyn-were the other two from Slytherin. On top of them, there were the Gryffindors, funny little Jaana and the very sassy Archer, the singular Hufflepuff of the class, the impossibly pretty Scottish bookworm Rosie McDonald and Alyssa's only eagle friend-one of the grade's two resident singer/guitarists, Alistair Quentin. Alistair was sitting on Alyssa's other side. He was generally rather reserved outside the Ravenclaw common room, especially around people he didn't know too well, but he was one of Alyssa's good friends, and he was damn good on his guitar.

Nodding to herself, Alyssa decided that she approved of the class. It ought to be a fun one.

"Welcome to your first advanced potions class." Snape's black eyes slowly travelled the room, taking in each of the students. "This is called an advanced class for a reason. The potions you will learn here will be significantly more challenging than any you have previously encountered."

Alyssa felt a thrill course through her. She hoped they were harder. She hadn't yet had to make an effort to execute a potion, and she was dying for a challenge.

"I expect that you will all give your full effort to this class. I also expect that you will give a similar effort to the curriculum potions class. Should I find your grades unsatisfactory in either class, you will no longer receive advanced placement."

Holding in a sigh, Alyssa nodded. That was reasonable, but it meant she wasn't allowed to just fall asleep in normal potions.

Snape had never been one for long speeches that weren't coming out of a textbook, so he merely waved his wand and instructions appeared on the board. Gesturing for them to start, Snape swished into his seat and began to look over some reports.

Alyssa quite happily began to dig in, happy to begin the tricky potion. She quickly got to the instruction to wait for twenty minutes for the potion to change colour. Glancing around the class, she found that everyone was still looking over their own potions.

Sly finished only moments after her, and Alyssa grinned, but raised an eyebrow when his gaze went past her. Curious, she followed his line of sight to where Rosie was sitting, daintily staring over her potion. Alyssa laughed lightly and quietly, not wanting to disturb people who were concentrating on their potions. She nudged Sly and he shot her a fleeting glance before returning his gaze to the front desk.

"Just checking out Rosie are you?" Alyssa teased. She saw his point, Rosie was tall and slim, with perfectly layered brown hair that held a hint of red inherited from her Scottish ancestry. Her grey eyes took up half of her face, giving her a constantly innocent look. Despite being a bookworm, she was quite athletic, but her main hobby was Herbology. She studied it for leisure and so was really quite good. As if to tell the world of her passion for plants, a circlet of flowers constantly rested on her head. Rumour had it that she had a sweetheart in Scotland that she had known since she was born and he had given it to her.

Sly visibly jumped in shock at Alyssa's remark. His chair screeched back a few inches, dragging against the floor and tearing harsh sound out of the stone. For a moment, everyone looked to the back of the class. Professor Snape looked up and sighed at Sly sideways on his chair, starign at Alyssa with his eyebrows in his hair. "Rydon, Pedrin, I'm quite aware that you two enjoy entertaining yourself by making a lot of noise, but I'm sure the rest of the class would be much more intent on their potions if you could be quiet?" The words were phrased nicely, but delivered with a tone that ensured that the rest of the class quickly got back to work.

Snape's eyes lingered on the pair at the back for a moment longer before he returned his gaze to his desk.

"What was that?" Alyssa shouted in a whisper. "I wasn't expecting that reaction, Sly!"

Sly briefly took off his hat to run a hand through his hair. "You just surprised me…"

Alyssa's eyebrows skyrocketed. "I just said that you were eyeing up Rosie, which you _so _were-"

"Rosie? No, she's like a little sister!" Sly retorted in a whisper-shout that turned into a hiss with all the 's's.

Alyssa's confusion raised her whisper-shout to a normal speaking volume. "Then why were you eyeing her up?"

Sly's utterly bemused look kept Alyssa in the throes of confusion. "Alyssa, I'm gay!"


	2. That Moment

Alyssa's jaw hit the floor.

Sly immediately burst into peals of laughter, not even bothering to hush them until Professor Snape shot them an exasperated look.

Her eyes quickly narrowing, Alyssa gave her new friend a look. "But you don't act it or look it." she stated.

Sly smirked. "I'm not sure whether or not to be offended by that, but I assure you that I am definitely gay."

A quick flick of her eyebrows, and then Alyssa pounced. She could feel the shock radiating from Sly as her lips crashed onto his. Pulling back, she eyed him critically to see his reaction.

Sly's eyes flew wider than ever before and he pulled back quickly, wiping a rolled up sleeve over his mouth. He quickly got over his shock to give Alyssa an exasperated look as the top of his body spun around and with one hand on Mycroft's face, he quickly kissed the boy passionately.

Mycroft-or Archer, as everyone called him-being the nut he was, simply cocked an eyebrow, shrugged and continued to work on his potion.

Turning back to Alyssa, Sly gave her a pointed look, and Alyssa laughed. "Sly, Archer's straight!"

Sly shot the then smiling Archer a considering backwards glance before giving Alyssa a grin and shrug. "Well, he's bi now."

Alyssa fought not to laugh out loud, instead giving Sly a weighing look. "I'm still not convinced."

Sly grinned. "So why did I just make poor Archer doubt his sexuality?"

Turning back to her potion, Alyssa inspected the green colour it was becoming. "You were helping out a friend."

Both of them spun to give Archer a grin. He shook his head and ignored them.

Alyssa gave Sly a look. "You know what, Sly, you're alright."

Reggie couldn't help but to grin as Professor Lupin began to speak. For 'no reason in particular', Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had _always_ had Defence Against the Dark Arts together.

No reason. Pfft. It was because that put all three werewolves together in the same group: Lupin, Alyssa and Reggie.

Professor Lupin had given them a rare cheeky grin as they arrived in the class that morning, and that had immediately raised suspicions among the younger members of the pack.

Looking over at Alyssa, he saw the delicately arched eyebrow of the birth-wolf as she considered their favourite Professor.

He recognised that look and it threw him back to three years ago, to the first time Alyssa and Reggie had transformed together.

_Reggie looked up at the holes in the ceiling of the Shrieking Shack. His human mind was only just beginning to filter back in through the wolf, and Reggie knew that soon, very soon, pain of the harshest kind would wrack his body and he would howl as his bones broke and reset and his muscles stretched and tore, but before that he knew that he had a moment. _

_That moment was something that made being a werewolf that tiny bit easier to live with. _

_Just before the pain began, just before everything was suffocated by agony, there it was. _

_In a way, it was bittersweet, that the very thing that would set his world on fire was the thing that he wouldn't survive his transformation without. _

_Reggie could sense it approaching, and his face lifted skyward to watch in wonder as the first broken shafts of sunlight fought their way through the darkness. He could feel it and he could see it as his eyes transformed in response to the light. _

_There was a moment of peace, the still of falling before you hit the ground, as Reggie admired the sunlight with oh so human eyes. _

_Pure agony tore through his body, and Reggie screamed to the sun and the moon and the world in the hopes that someone would listen. _

_And this time, someone would. _

_The transformation left Reggie curled up on the floor of the shack, shuddering as the remnants and memories of pain coursed through him. The position was so familiar, so loathed…_

_There was a warm hand on his chilled shoulder. "Reggie?"_

_Cracking his eyes open, Reggie gasped to find Alyssa crouching before him, her copper curls swinging, drenched with sweat, and her concerned blue eyes were fixed on him. Blood dripped from a cut on her forehead and he saw more of it on her side, where she was holding a shirt over her body with her free hand. _

_Reggie groaned and sat up, throwing another glance up at the shafts of sunlight filtering through the roof, which were now strong sunbeams that warmed his chilled bones. "Morning." he murmured, his voice cracking as his throat recovered. _

_Alyssa shot him a radiant smile before the Professor came into view, wearing his trousers and shirt open over a sweaty chest. His hair was plastered to his face and his limbs looked stiff and sore, but he bore no wounds or signs of the previous night's activities. He was the alpha after all. _

_Holding up a pair of phials, containing a clear liquid with only the slightest tinge of purple, Remus grinned and shook them a bit, eliciting loud groans from both of the younger werewolves. _

_The pair helped each other to their feet, doing a brief inspection of their body to check everything was still working. _

_Reggie's leg collapsed under him before he caught his balance and stood, twisting his body to look back at his thigh. A portion of his skin was practically hanging off his leg and blood was rolling down to his ankle. His mouth falling open as the pain began to radiate from his leg, Reggie turned to gape at Alyssa. "You tried to eat my leg!" _

_Red flushed Alyssa's cheeks and ears, but she screwed up her nose at him. "Why would I wanna do that?"_

_Cocking an eyebrow, Reggie scoffed, "Are you implying that I would taste bad?"_

_Alyssa laughed. "No, I'm telling you. Believe me, I know."_

_Remus and Alyssa both laughed while Reggie pouted. After a few moments though, the pain in his leg made itself known. _

_Remus frowned and moved forward as Reggie fell forward, leaning on his unharmed leg. Putting a hand on Reggie's shoulder to hold him up, Remus handed him a phial, unstopping it. _

_Giving the Professor a dirty look that left no-one in doubt as to what he thought about the contents of said phial, Reggie quickly poured it down his throat and swallowed, trying to get it over and done with. Turning his head to the side and poking his tongue out as far as it would go, he gave out a high pitched whine as Remus splashed some kind of liquid on his mutilated leg. "Owwwwww…This is all your fault Pedrin."_

_Alyssa came to look at what she had done from over Remus' shoulder. "Yeah, I guess it is…"_

_Remus held up the second phial for the birth-wolf and she twisted her mouth before swallowing the foul liquid._

"_I did warn you she goes for the hind legs, cub." Remus murmured as he continued to inspect his thigh. _

_Reggie craned his neck in time to see Alyssa stand back, hands on hips and one eyebrow raised. Laughing, he shared a look with Remus, who chuckled. It took only a moment for Alyssa to drop the eyebrow and join in, the three laughing in a kind of camaraderie that no other could ever intrude on._

Reggie was brought back to the present by a sharp jab in the ribs from Alyssa, who tilted her head towards Professor Lupin, who was giving them a small, secretive smile. He turned his gaze onto some other class member as he began to speak. "Our focus this term will be dark creatures, more specifically for the moment-werewolves."

_Hi guys! Thank you so, so very much to my lone reviewer, not only for the Wolf, but for the Cub also. AccioYellowSlug! I was very happy to finally get a review!_

_Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!_


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